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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What illness did Virginia Woolf have to deal with at several times in her life?
(a) Impetigo.
(b) Paranoid Schizophrenia.
(c) Scarlet Fever.
(d) Depression.

2. Who wrote "Beside the Nore?"
(a) Hubert Butler.
(b) Seneca.
(c) Sei Shonagon.
(d) E.M. Cioran.

3. When was Walter Benjamin Born?
(a) 1892 A.D.
(b) 1962 A.D.
(c) 1705 A.D.
(d) 1472 A.D.

4. What title did Thurber give to his humorous autobiographical essay?
(a) James Thurber, I Hardly Knew You.
(b) James Thurber: Confidential.
(c) The Secret Life of James Thurber.
(d) Autobiography of a Biographist.

5. Who wrote "Walking"?
(a) Henry David Thoreau.
(b) Phillip Lopate.
(c) Seymour Krim.
(d) Kenko.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do Seymour Krim and Mary McCarthy have in common?

2. What nickname is given to Max Beerbohm?

3. Who wrote "Such, Such Were the Joys..."?

4. James Thurber is said to have inspired what, in American essay prose?

5. Who wrote "The Death of the Moth?"

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the particulars of Ivan Turgenev's "The Execution of Tropmann"?

2. What is the subject of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Crack-Up?" What extended metaphor does he use?

3. Describe the important events in Lu Hsun's life that impacted his personal essays.

4. What subject dominated the writings of George Orwell? Name three specific things George Orwell wrote about.

5. Describe Walter Benjamin's unfortunate end. How does his essay "Unpacking My Library" relate to this tragic end?

6. What is the subject of E.B. White's "Once More to the Lake"? What is the message White relays about the state of the lake?

7. What level of literary output did G. K. Chesterton achieve in his lifetime?

8. What is the subject of Krim's "For My Brothers and Sisters in the Failure Business"? What feelings does Krim express in the essay?

9. What two works of G. K. Chesterton are included in this volume? What are the subjects of these essays?

10. What is Jose Luis Borges' perspective on his own increasing blindness, as revealed in his essay "Blindness?"

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